Hudson student awarded prestigious Thiel Fellowship

While many of the country’s most academically gifted high school students aspire to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but are unsuccessful, Thomas Sohmers has studied at the institute since he was a seventh-grader.

While many of the country’s most academically gifted high school students aspire to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but are unsuccessful, Thomas Sohmers has studied at the institute since he was a seventh-grader.

A self-proclaimed tech geek, hacker and programmer, Sohmers, 17, an 11th-grader at the Advanced Science and Math Charter School, has interned at MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies since 2010 and worked on a variety of research projects, including a laser data communications system designed for Army officials.

Certain he would attend MIT after graduating from the Advanced Science and Math Charter School, Sohmers' life changed with a single phone call.

Sohmers is one of 20 students under 20 years old from across the country to be named a Thiel Fellow, a program created by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Paypal and the first outside investor in Facebook. He and the other 19 will receive $100,000 over the next two years to pursue scientific and technical projects and learn entrepreneurship.

"I’m truly honored to be accepted," said Sohmers, who has been programming computers for seven years.

Thiel created the program to help talented students reach their goals and not settle for safe jobs.

During his fellowship, Sohmers will continue his work developing a new computing platform that uses very low-powered processors in a cluster to transform the server, cloud and research computing industries in Silicon Valley, Calif., this summer.

"It is pretty awesome," he said.

Sohmers is unsure of his plans when his fellowship ends in two years, but said college is a possibility.

The youngest of this year’s Thiel Fellows, Sohmers said it is inspiring to see the impact this year's group will have on the world.

"It was so amazing meeting so many awesome young people doing groundbreaking work," said Sohmers.

Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or jmalachowski@wickedlocal.com.